Naruto 1. Chapter 1

A/N: Please do not flame if you don't like my story! I will accept _constructive _critique, but I will report needless flaming.

My heart sunk down to my feet and my stomach lurched. The snow was stained red and he wasn't moving. I knelt down and checked for a pulse; there was none. _'This can't be happening. This couldn't be happening. This isn't happening. We found Sasuke and brought him back to Kohona. Team 7 was finally whole again. Our family was complete. We were happy. . . Weren't we?'_

One question blared in my mind above all others: _'What the hell happened?'_

I couldn't breathe. I couldn't move. I just knelt in the blood stained snow. I looked at him. My 'brother.' His blond hair was stuck to his face, drenched by sweat and snow. His eyes were closed. His mouth hung open slightly and there was a thin stream of blood trickling down. I shut my eyes for a moment, afraid to look more. I opened my eyes and let them wander further down his body.

I had to fight the urge to throw up. His shirt was ripped off of him and in the middle of his chest, right about where his heart should be, was a hole.  
I had to look away.

"Kato! Kato! Where are you?" I heard Sakura's voice in the distance. I should have responded, I know I should have. Her screams as she found Narutoand I will haunt me for as long as I live.

By this time my hands were already stained with blood, _his blood_, and my eyes were bloodshot from crying.

"Kato! What happened?! What happened to Naruto?!"

She had every right to accuse me, but she didn't. She knew that I would never do anything to harm Naruto.

I don't know how long we sat there in the snow before Kakashi found us. He was much more level headed than either Sakura or I, but I could see tears welling up in his visible eye.

"Chidori." He said at last.

"Chidori?" I looked up at him.

"Yes."

"But… Sasuke...?"

Kakashi looked down, "Yes."

I found new tears in my eyes. I knew that Naruto and Sasuke have fought before, but I never thought that it would lead to the death of either of them.

Sakura sobbed beside me and I put my arm around her. I tried to put on a brave face.

"What should we do, Kakashi-sensei?" I asked.

"Look for Sasuke."

"Yes, Kakashi-sensei."

I stood up and brushed my bangs out of my face with my forearm. I looked down at Sakura, "Will you be okay to go alert Tsunade-sama of the situation?" She nodded and Kakashi pulled a summoning scroll from his vest pocket and released his Ninken. I pulled a similar summoning scroll from my pocket, bit my thumb to draw the required blood, and released my two wolves, Amaya and Rin.

Kakashi squatted in the snow to address his Ninken, "We are looking for Sasuke. He should be within a five mile radius of here. When you find him, alert me. You all know the signal? Good. Go!"

I leaned forward and put my hands on my knees. Amaya was already hopping from foot to foot eager to get started, but Rin sat there, as stoic as she always is.

"You heard Kakashi-sensei. We're looking for Sasuke. You remember his scent, right?"

They both nodded and were off. I was left standing in the woods with Sakura and Naruto's body. I paused before I took off to see Sakura still crying for Naruto.

* * *

It was mid-morning when we started our search. A five mile radius wasn't too far to search, but the think snowfall and trees make it difficult to spot anything in particular with no bloodline trait. Kakashi-sensei had his Sharingan and the canines had their sense of smell, but I had nothing but normal eyes and ears. I had to check every area twice, once from the ground and once from the trees. Just because there was no sound but my footsteps in the snow and the sound of my heartbeat didn't mean that there wasn't anyone there.

A howl came from an area to my left. I landed in the snow and started running in the direction of the howl. Even though I had seen many things during my time as a ninja and I had my guard up, I had no idea what to expect. That's one of the usually fun things about being a ninja, every mission is different.

The first sign that something was wrong was that the area smelt like metal. That meant either one of two things. Either there was some kind of raw metal in the area, or that a whole lot of blood was spilled. I slowed down and pulled out a kunai.

As I proceeded further into the area I knew something horrible had happened. Trees were turning into nothing more than mangled wood and blood marked everything. A trail of blood was leading towards the area of the howl. Was it Naruto's blood or Sasuke's?

I sped up, disregarding the fact that there could be enemies all around the area.

Something had happened and I needed to know what.

There was another clearing coming up – one I didn't remember being there. As I got closer I saw that it wasn't a clearing at all. It was a crater. And someone was lying motionless in the bottom of it.

"Sasuke…" I breathed and rushed down the slope, slipping on the wet upturned earth. I fell and slid the rest of the way down, but I didn't care. I had to get to Sasuke.

Like Naruto, his shirt had been torn off, but unlike Naruto he had many (generally) non-fatal wounds. I could hear his breath come in ragged gasps, each one a struggle. I had seen more than my share of deaths, and Sasuke seemed close to his.

It didn't make sense. Naruto and Sasuke fought on about the same skill level. Unless…

"No…" I gasped and crawled across the crater closer to Sasuke. Naruto wasn't stupid enough to tap into the Kyuubi's chakra when the seal was getting weak, was he?

I reached out to start healing him, when his eyes opened a crack, "Kato-chan… Don't bother…"

"What do you mean, don't bother?!" Tears formed in my eyes for a third time that day.

"I'm not worth it…"

"What the hell am I supposed to tell Sakura?! That the both of you died?!"

"So… He's dead…" Sasuke didn't seem too surprised.

"Yes! He's dead! Naruto's dead!" I yelled.

"I don't…" Sasuke shuddered, pain gripping him, "I don't know what happened… One moment… he's normal… the next… he's the fox…"

"So he did tap into the chakra."

"No… I think… I think the seal… weakened…"

Sasuke's condition was growing worse with each passing moment. If he was to live, I would need to act fast. I made a second attempt at reaching for him, but Sasuke feebly brought his hand up to reach mine. "No… Kato…"

"Why?! Why do you want to die, Uchiha Sasuke?!" I yelled in his face, letting my tears finally spill over.

"It's my time… I'm… sorry…"

That was the last thing he ever said.

* * *

The funerals were unbearable for everyone, especially for the remaining Team 7 members. We had all known that both of them were going to die young, but we didn't think it would be before their eighteenth birthdays.

It was even harder for Hoshi now. Now that she was the only remaining Uchiha. She would have to take on all the responsibilities of remaking her clan. She would have to carry out her family's traditions. At age 15, she was a person whose mind was beyond her years. All of the light behind her dark eyes had gone from her. She was a shell of her former self.

After the earth was upturned and they were laid to rest, I went to sit near the lake. Even though I knew I should have been with everyone else performing the remaining rituals and consoling the other members of my team, I didn't have the heart to do it.

I just wanted things to go back to the way they were. I wanted to be able to scold Naruto for eating ramen for breakfast. I wanted to tease Sasuke about his hair looking like a duck's butt. I wanted to see them laughing together.

But that was never to happen again, so I settled for being alone.

I mulled over what had happened over the last few days. I replayed everything in my mind. Tsunade-sama had determined what most likely happened from studying the bodies and the devastation to the surrounding area. It appeared that Naruto's seal had weakened considerably in a short period of time, allowing the Kyuubi to take control of him even when he was calm. No one could have seen it coming. Sasuke knew that the only way to stop the Kyuubi was to destroy its host, Naruto. By doing so, he was injured to the point of death. It was a lose-lose situation. If Sasuke let Naruto live, then the Kyuubi had a good chance of being released. And if the Kyuubi had been released, then who knows what might have happened.

I sat there on the lake shore, letting the water lap around my ankles and get the bottom of my kimono wet. I didn't care anymore. I didn't care about anything anymore. Life just didn't seem to be worth living.

I had had enough of everything. I stood up and screamed as loud as I could. I didn't care who heard me anymore. I screamed and I screamed until my voice became hoarse and I sunk back into the sand again, defeated.

I reached around my neck to touch my crystal and realized that it wasn't there.

I panicked. I've had my crystal for years and I've never had it off my neck for a long period of time before. As silly as it seems, it was an old friend of sorts. I didn't like it off of me or out of my sight.

I jumped up and almost slipped in the wet sand. I quickly regained my balance and ran. I didn't know where I had lost it, but I found myself running closer and closer to where I had found Sasuke.

Fresh snow had fallen and blanketed the crater. I dashed down the sides until I had got to the point where I had knelt in the snow days earlier. I dug in the snow until my hands were read and raw, but I didn't find my crystal. I dug again, and again, and again until I had almost half of the crater dug up. The sun was setting now and my hands were bleeding. I sat in the snow and cried until I saw a faint glimmer.

I was to the point of madness now. My body was aching and my head was spinning. I crawled to the spot and started digging again. Tears were still streaming down my face as I thought about all that had happened in my life. I thought about all that had gone wrong and how I ended up as a nomad, never finding a home. I thought about how I ended up in Kohona and how I became a ninja. My mind wandered to the friends I had made and those who had died. I thought about how I wanted to see Naruto and Sasuke again, to see everything normal again.

And then I found my crystal. It glimmered in the faint sunlight and reflected the colors of the things around it. It was almost as if it was winking to me, saying that everything would be alright.

I reached out my hand and I found that I was suddenly nervous to touch it. I was afraid that if I lay my hand on it that it was going to suddenly disappear.

Regardless of my feelings, I leaned in closer and put my fingertips on my crystal. It seemed to shine for a moment, and then the world went black.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Please do not flame if you don't like my story! I will accept _constructive _critique, but I will report needless flaming.**

**Sorry for the lack of updates. I just haven't been feeling very creative lately. **

* * *

A noise interrupted my sleep. I rolled over in my bed. The noise continued. I groaned and clasped my pillow to my head. The droning persisted. I had no idea what it was, but I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep.

I sat up and looked around. I was sitting on a futon in a corner of a semi-spacious room. The walls were a light purple and the floors were covered in tatami mats. On one wall there was a closet, a dresser, and a vanity with a mirror in a dark wood. A kotatsu sat near the middle of the room with books stacked on it. There was also a small table near the futon with a bowl of water and a rag on it. I had no idea how I had gotten there, and I was too sleepy to care.

I got up slowly and rubbed the sleep out of my eyes. I went to go and look at myself in the mirror on top of the vanity. I vaguely noticed that either the walls and furniture were really high, or I had gotten shorter.

Yawning, I looked into the mirror.

The reflection staring back at me wasn't mine. My long brown hair was replaced with short, messy blond hair. My eyes were now blue and there was no scar over my left eye. I stood there for a second wondering if this was all a trick. And then I let out a loud scream and backed away from the vanity.

I sat down shakily on the kotatsu and tried to think things out. Surely this had to be some sort of Genjutsu. I closed my eyes, stopped my chakra flow, and then released a short burst of chakra. I opened my eyes to find that I was in the same room.

I heard a sound like someone climbing up stairs. I jumped up and ducked under the kotatsu's quit to hide, leaving a little hole that I could see out of.

The door to the room flew open. "Mai? Mai, where are you? I heard you yell, are you alright?" It was a voice that I had never heard before, but I could tell it was male. A pair of regulation sandals walked passed my hiding spot.

"Mai? Mai, this is not funny! Where are you?"

I could hear the closet being opened and searched. The man kept asking where this 'Mai' was. He searched almost every corner of the room until he stopped in front of the place where I had hid myself.

I held my breath. I had none of my ninja tools with me and my mind was drawing a blank as far as jutsu was concerned. The man knelt, pulled up the quit, and stuck his head under the kotatsu.

The man was young, with spiky blond hair and blue eyes. He looked almost identical to Naruto, except he didn't have Naruto's facial markings. He had a worried look on his face.

I racked my mind. I knew I had seen his face before. Rock. Stone. Carving. I gasped.

I was staring at Yondaime Hokage.

His faced softened when he saw me and he breathed a sigh of relief.

"Mai, there you are. Don't scare me like that. Are you alright?" He asked. I guessed then that the girl whose body I was in was named Mai.

I couldn't move or respond. My mind was asking so many questions at once. _Why am I looking at Yondaime Hokage? Didn't he die? Why is he in front of me? Why does he seem to be so concerned over my well being? What the hell is going on?_

I forced myself to breathe when I realized that I was getting dizzy due to lack of oxygen. Yondaime's face showed worry again. "Mai? Are you alright? You look pale. Come on; lay back down in your bed."

He managed to coax me out from underneath the kotatsu and sat me on the bed. I still hadn't said a word. I reached to touch my crystal again. It was gone, again.

All of a sudden I felt that my crystal was the most important thing to me. I jumped to my feet and looked for a way out of the room. I saw a large window; it was open. Without thinking I ran to the window and jumped out of it.

I found myself plummeting to the earth at a very rapid speed and I had almost nothing to land on until I reached the ground. I had to slow my fall or I would break every bone in my body.

My bubbles. I could break the fall with my bubbles. I made the hand signs and hoped for the best.

"Water style Jutsu: Bubble release!"

Large bubbles formed below me. Each of them caught my fall and popped. I slowed down to a reasonable speed and made my landing safely.

Then I ran in the first direction I saw. I knew that Yondaime Hokage would be after me. I turned down the first busy street that I came to. I was a lot smaller and faster than I was used to, so I easily ducked and dodged between people. I glanced over my shoulder to see Yondaime Hokage far behind me.

I eased my stride a little to conserve energy if I had to make a quick escape again. I still didn't know where I was going. I passed the edge of the village and ran through the forest. I ran until I came to a clearing in the trees.

The clearing seemed familiar to me. I walked to the middle of the grassy area noticing that the space had a slope to it. Almost like…

A crater.

All of a sudden everything came back to me. I relived everything again. Blood. Pain. Naruto. Sasuke. Death. Funeral. Tears. Despair. Helplessness.

I sunk to my knees, my head spinning once more.

"No! No! No, no, no, no, no, no!" I screamed.

"Mai?"

I looked up to see Yondaime again. He was at the edge of the clearing. He made a move to step closer to me and I scooted away from him. He looked too much like Naruto.

Suddenly Yondaime was at my side. He grabbed a hold of my arm.

"No!" I screamed and struggled to get away. He tightened his grip and caught my other arm. I went limp and he loosened his grip on me.

I bolted from his grip and ran to one side of the clearing. I wasn't thinking anymore. I didn't want to think anymore. When I thought images of what had happened flashed through my mind and I just couldn't take it anymore.

I heard movement behind me and I saw Yondaime moving in on me again. He approached more slowly this time, as if he was approaching a feral animal.

I took off again and cut across the clearing at full speed until a sparkle in the grass caught my eye. I turned sharply and fell onto my side. I didn't take my eyes off of the area where I had seen the sparkle as I got back up and walked to it.

When I got to the spot I saw the smallest tip of something sticking out of the soil. Something shiny and smooth and purple. I bent down and fervently dug it up. It was my crystal.

The chain that held it was gone, but it was my crystal none the less. I turned it over and over in my hands. Just holding it comforted me.

I barely noticed Yondaime scooping me up and talking me back into the village. All I knew is that I had my crystal and somehow I would manage to make sense of this all.

* * *

**A/N: Dun dun dun. Plot twist! So what really happened to Kato? And who is this Mai? And how the hell is Yondaime alive? Find out next chapter!**

**(Hopefully it won't be several months from now...)**


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Naruto, Adventure